World News - State hemorrhages factory jobs One of every 4 manufacturing positions in 2000 is gone by 2005

The number of manufacturing jobs in New York fell by 26 percent during the first half of the decade, a new census report shows. Almost every major category of goods-producing employment contributed to the loss of 191,000 jobs between 2000 and 2005. Apparel manufacturing was the hardest hit. Furniture making was the sole exception to the decline among industries employing at least 20,000 people. It added about 1,300 jobs during the five-year period. New York fared worse than the nation as a whole, but not by much. Overall U.S. manufacturing employment dropped 21 percent, or about 3.5 million jobs, to a 2005 level of 13.2 million. "A lot of what happens in New York follows national trends," said Kevin Jack, principal economist at the state Labor Department in Albany. Despite the decline, manufacturing remains an important part of the New York economy — and nowhere more than in the Rochester/Finger Lakes region. ... http://www.rochesterdandc.com

Iraq's parliament will bar the media from future sessions and began on Monday by refusing access to reporters and then cutting off television coverage as a debate on mounting sectarian violence became heated. Spokesmen for the government and parliament said it was part of efforts, newly agreed by Iraq's National Security Council, to stop political leaders contradicting each other in public and prevent media coverage that was deemed to inflame conflicts. "If there is any tension in the state, then the media should be kept out because it may increase tension," speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani told lawmakers in a televised session after dozens of journalists were barred from the building by security guards. When one lawmaker rose to object, Mashhadani, from the Sunni minority, ordered the cameras turned off, effectively shutting off public access to a legislature whose election was held up by the United States as a beacon for democracy in the Middle East....http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC738897.htm

A debate over whether to set a timetable for a phased withdrawal of US forces from Iraq is being preempted by key US allies who have announced plans to scale back their own forces over the next year, analysts say. The latest and most important to announce was Britain, whose defense minister said Monday the 7,100-member British contingent will be scaled back "by a matter of thousands" by the end of next year. Poland, which commands a 2,000-strong multi-national division in southern Iraq, said Monday that its 880-man contingent will be out of Iraq by late 2007. Italy, once a mainstay of the coalition force with 3,000 troops in Iraq, has withdrawn all but 60 to 70 troops from the country and those will be gone by early December, said Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi....http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061128/pl_afp/usiraqmilitarybritain

Now we know the plan for British troops in Iraq: begin to pull out, leaving a few thousand for training and helping with emergencies. Des Browne, Defence Secretary, shaded in some of the blanks yesterday in what is now Britain’s exit strategy. Some in the Bush Administration think that the US should emulate Britain’s tactics; others, that they risk more turmoil, and are a luxury available only to the junior partner in the coalition. In Afghanistan, in contrast, Britain has taken the lead: of the Nato forces; of the anti-narcotics effort, and of the turbulent south of the country. It not only has no exit strategy, it is also trying to persuade others to enter. It risks putting itself in Afghanistan in the same predicament that has engulfed the US in Iraq....http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2474889,00.html

Bush intensified diplomatic efforts on Monday to quell rising violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, turning to allies as his national security adviser said the conflict in Iraq had entered "a new phase" requiring changes."Obviously everyone would agree things are not proceeding well enough or fast enough," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush flew eastward.The president was spending Monday night in this tiny Baltic nation ahead of a two-day NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, expected to deal with deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan, where NATO has 32,000 troops.Both Estonia and Latvia are former Soviet republics that are strong allies in the war on terror.Bush will head to Amman, Jordan, for talks Wednesday and Thursday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and King Abdullah of Jordan....http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/27/ap/world/mainD8LLMSGG0.shtml

Insurgents Monday targeted key oil sites in Iraq, firing mortar rounds into an oil distribution center in northern Iraq and bombing a pipeline in a southern suburb of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said. The attack on the oil distribution center triggered a massive fire that halted the flow of crude oil to Iraq's largest refinery, a Kirkuk police official said. The attack happened around 6:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. ET) in Baiji, which is about 15 miles (25 km) northwest of Kirkuk, the police official said. Iraqi army and civil defense personnel were still on the scene hours later trying to put out the fire. Smoke from the blaze could been seen from miles away. The refinery in Baiji has a daily production level of about 8.5 million liters of gasoline, 7.5 million liters of diesel and 6.5 million liters of white oil. ...http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/27/iraq.main/index.html?eref=rss_world